AT Brussels airport, when you step off a plane from Ireland or the UK and present your passport for inspection, your name is tapped into a computerised database known as the Schengen Information System. This is a central plank of the arrangements set up to police the new Europe-without-frontiers, which lists "undesirables", terrorists or suspects wanted for extradition to other EU countries.
The data recorded includes names, aliases, distinguishing marks, whether a person is likely to be armed or violent and the reason for inclusion in the list. Missing persons and witnesses wanted in trials are also mentioned in the file on the basis of information supplied by national authorities.
When the draft convention, designed to bring the system under the EU's ambit, was debated last month, some MEPs did not want asylum applicants to be considered as "undesirable aliens", this request was not supported by a majority in the parliament. MEPs do, however, want to see privacy safeguards, and a proper right of appeal to the European Court of Justice, for asylum seekers.
The authorities should be obliged to inform, in writing, anyone who wishes to consult his or her file of the specific reason why access is being denied. The central file now contains thousands of pieces of information, and is getting bigger by the day, and the possibility of errors increases.